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Autobiographical reading and writing was a fantastic class. I enjoyed the atmosphere because it allowed me to express and voice my opinions without feeling self-conscious. The syllabus was very helpful because half of my high school classes did not provide an outline of the curriculum of the class, which made planning a frustrating task. Mrs. Rocha was the perfect teacher for this class. She was so understanding and approachable that I felt incredibly lucky to be in English 1200. In fact she was so positive that no one in the class misbehaved or disrespected her. She gave us her respect, which surprised me because I thought college professors would assume a dictatorship role and look down on high school students, especially minorities.

Mrs. Rocha gave us so much respect and understanding that I completely changed my view on the possibility of having great college professors. She provided so much insight on minority issues, and shared her personal experience with us as well. We read poetry like, "No Parole Today" and prose like, "At Home On The Earth", a collection of stories by famous Minority authors. We also watched music videos depicting themes about racism and other controversial issues. We workshopped our autobiographies with our study group people and constantly used email to send feedback and suggestions. I've explored so much philosophical topics in this course, more so than an entire semester's worth in high school.

The homework really demanded us to view objectives in different perspectives. At first, it was challenging to see the different side of a story and offer vantage points, but after Mrs. Rocha helped us out, everyone seemed to offer their own opinions and ideas. Most importantly, Mrs. Rocha understood the class, she knew how we felt and she knew how we thought. She never lectured us, instead, she tried to show us the truth behind things. Her tone and her voice was really relaxing, because we were all nervous at how Mrs. Rocha might react towards things. I wish my high school english teachers could us this much empathy.

Personally, the class resonated well with me. I had anticipated an extremely time-consuming class filled with grammar excersises and lectures about good writing in only one type of writing. Fortunately, the class was fun and comfortable.